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Friday, April 28, 2006

The Fabulous Baker Boys

The Fabulous Baker Boys changed my life. Sounds like a hoary old cliché, no? But it’s true. I saw it three times the week it opened in 1989, and without ever having touched middle C, walked into a music store and signed up for piano lessons. The piano has been an integral part of my life since; I can’t imagine living without it.

Michelle Pfeiffer will not be lacking for love today. In addition to joining the giant birthday hug and crooning her praises along with tout le monde, I figured nobody would mind if I seized this opportunity to talk in some detail about this film, one of her best. Specifically, I’m interested in the role of music in this film, and the way the world of music fits into the world of this movie.

Steve Kloves wrote and directed The Fabulous Baker Boys. In a nutshell: Frank (Beau Bridges) and Jack Baker (Jeff Bridges) are a veteran lounge piano duo who’ve never had a day job. When times turn hard, they take on a singer, Suzie Diamond (Michelle, naturellement), and begin landing prime gigs. But she changes the dynamic between the brothers and catalyzes a long-time-coming fissure of values between them, both commercial and musical. Along the way, she and Jack become lovers.

When it comes down to it, the basic conflict in this movie is between two musical worlds: lounge and jazz. It’s mostly unarticulated in the film, but here’s how they are different. Lounge often draws from the jazz repertoire (the Great American Songbook—Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers & Hart et al.) and is melodically similar to jazz since they both play many of the same tunes. But unlike jazz, lounge involves little improvisation (“We play the same goddamn tune the same way every time” says Jack as he quits). Rhythmically, lounge often accents insistently and predictably, and is nervous about syncopation lest it lose the audience, who are only half-paying attention; they are there to eat and drink. And harmonically, lounge is relatively timid, laying off dissonant chords so as not to disrupt the mood. (Lounge is mood music.) Jazz, of course, thrives on syncopation and harmonic daring.

How does all this relate to the movie? The lounge career is Frank’s idea, and Jack goes along with it for fifteen years because he doesn’t seem to have the courage to break out and do what he really wants to do, which is play jazz. Jack lives alone in a run-down apartment downtown—the movie is set in Seattle—and Frank lives with his wife and kids in the suburbs. Frank runs the business but Jack is—the movie implies—the real artist.

Now, pull back a little and things start to get really interesting. Dave Grusin did the music for the film, and played both Frank’s and Jack’s piano parts. Two pianos is a scarifying format even for seasoned pros—there are just way too many notes that can be played at any one time; the excess of possibilities is fraught with danger. Train wrecks, muddy sound, too little space—these problems are all too common. But the times Jack plays alone, without Frank, we hear pure jazz. Dave Grusin plays lounge without condescending to it and jazz without putting it up on a pedestal. Grusin isn’t always loved in the jazz world—he’s accused of being a sell-out because he does a lot of soundtracks, occasionally slathers on the strings, runs a "smooth jazz" label, and tries too hard to cross over. But I like the way he represents the two musical genres in this movie, truthfully and non-judgmentally.

And you ask: Are we ever going to get to Michelle? Well, the single-best scene in the film is her first appearance. She is late for her audition, cusses loudly as she walks in, and has gum on her lip. But what follows is a brilliantly authentic musical episode, even if it only lasts two minutes. She asks for “More Than You Know,” and Jack, without skipping a beat, knocks off a sprightly two-bar intro for her. She cuts him off and snaps, “Real slow, okay?” He stops mid-note, pauses for just a second, and then reels off, improvised, a brand-new intro (in pure jazz spirit). Her voice starts out soft and tentative—Michelle did her own singing—but quickly gains in confidence without losing its vulnerability. He stays both with her and a hair’s breadth behind her, following where she leads. There’s a moment when he throws in a tasty little fill and a shadow of a smile crosses her face for a half-second, the first time we see her lighten. As she hits her last note, he holds back on playing anything, then glides in a half-step above her note for a bittersweet finish on a faintly tangy chord. It’s one the best love-making scenes I’ve ever seen.

(There is a wonderful and historic jazz moment that is an analogue of the one above. On the Miles Davis recording of “You’re My Everything” (1956) with his group which included Coltrane and the great pianist Red Garland, Miles starts out by blowing a few warm-up notes, stops, and then Red comes in with a pretty ballad-like intro. Miles cuts him off with a whistle and growls, “Play some block chords....” Red freezes, pauses for a second or two, and improvises on the spot a gorgeous block chord intro.)

Michelle’s singing is a little revelation in this film. Her models are not recent singers but chanteuses from the golden age of jazz singing, the 1950’s. She sings unfussily, confessionally, tenderly. And her small voice—it’d never work without amplification, but you could say that for millions of other singers too—appeals more than many other big and powerful ones because she seems acutely aware of the words she’s singing and the humanism of these classic songs. Here’s a phrase that used to be a put-down to mean that a singer didn’t have a good voice but let me strip it of that disparaging whiff and sincerely pay her one of the best musical compliments I know: Michelle is an intelligent and subtle “song stylist,” making more meaning with her modest means than most belters do with their big brassy pipes. I really wish she’d do an album of jazz/pop.

Very nice post, Girish. I barely remember The Fabulous Baker Boys, but this in particular really stood out for me: "Dave Grusin plays lounge without condescending to it and jazz without putting it up on a pedestal ... I like the way he represents the two musical genres in this movie, truthfully and non-judgmentally." That's a nice reading of Grusin's approach.

Thanks for posting the MP3s of Michelle singing. I admit that I'm not personally crazy about the timbre of her voice, but you're right to say that she does the most with her modest means. That's a particularly lovely version of "My Funny Valentine." Really good stuff.

(Your reference to that great Miles moment on Relaxin' reminds me of a story John McLaughlin once told about Miles -- around 1969 or so -- not liking the way drummer Jack deJohnette was playing a certain song. Miles turned to Jack and, sounding out the drum sounds, said something similar to this: "no, Jack, like this: bop, boop, bop, boop, boop, bop, bop, boop, bop. Okay?" And then, apparently, everything was just fine after that.)

it always warms me when people love this film. I think it was a touch too sophisticated to be a hit in the 80s but it seems to have had a long life in the memory for most people --and not only for the red dress on the piano top.

i don't know a lot about music but this post rang true. and I've always wished to see Kloves hit it big again as a writer/director (the time seems to have passed)

And then there's the Miles story (perhaps apocryphal) of him auditioning a hot young horn player who was blowing a mile a minute. When he was done, Miles picked up a sheet of music and said something like, "You see the black markings? Those are the notes. You see the white space? That's the music."Even if they're apocryphal, those words contain a lot of wisdom for me.

Michael, just curious: do you have a favorite Miles period (Birth of the Cool/mid-50s with Coltrane/modal Kind of Blue/Gil Evans/mid-60s Herbie and Wayne Shorter, etc)? Lately, I've been pulling out the Herbie Hancock/Wayne Shorter period CDs a lot (ESP/Miles Smiles/Sorcerer/Nefertiti, etc). Even today, they sound really daring and jaw-droppingly good.

Nathaniel, I've been rooting for Kloves too, but you're right--his time may have passed.I liked his screenplay for Wonder Boys (love that film) and I think he's done some Harry Potter too...And nice work on MC'ing that colossal blog-a-thon, Nathaniel!

Not a big fan of Grusin but to be fair 1) I don't know much about music in the first place, and 2) Jack isn't out and out meant to be a brilliant jazz artist, I think; more good enough that he'd want to make the attempt, but not so good that he's sure he'd succeed.

As for Pfeiffer's singing--pfah. She has a nice voice and all, but the whole point to the numbers is that she performs them, and that's what she does, wonderfully. She's playing a singer who's not good enough to get a record deal, but who can live on what she warbles everyday. It's pitch perfect, as you point out.

"You see the white space? That's the music." Oh, man, that's classic -- and a great statement about music.

You know, it's interesting that you mentioned Miles in your post and that we're talking about him here. I've been on a huge Miles kick lately (and have been planning a couple of posts about him as well).

To answer your question, for the longest time, my favorite Miles period was the late 50s/cool jazz/Milestones/Gil Evans era. But recently I've really been into the Second Quintet era, and that's quickly becoming my favorite. To my ears, Miles Smiles is an absolutely phenomenal record (and, as you note, like the other albums it still sounds fresh). And I love the sense of evolution, even with older songs -- the way, in live recordings, they'd take a song like "Walkin'", state the main theme very quickly at a much faster tempo, and then just take off.

My college roommate was obsessed with The Fabulous Baker Boys (and with smooth jazz, too, unfortunately), so I watched it several times in the early-90s but not once since. I have to admit that the one scene that stands out in my memory is the sex scene. The moment Jeff Bridges slips his hands into Pfeiffer's dress was one of the sexiest things I'd ever seen. Still is, actually.

Girish, nice post. I've always loved Pfeiffer's singing, too, and have owned the soundtrack for years. Of course, the Grusin thing was always a double-edged sword to me. I always wondered if using Grusin, a second-tier artist at best, meant that Jack thought he was a great jazz artist, but might have only been a middling one, which adds to the pathos: He wants to be so much more than a lounge lizard, but he might be nothing much more than that. So many great moments in that film: I love the beginning, where the woman tells Jack he has great hands, and that scene between the brothers after that disastrous telethon, where Jack says, I'm paraphrasing, "We were always cheap, but we were never clowns." Marvelous screenplay, marvelous ambiguous ending.

I did see FLESH AND BONE, it was the film that made you first notice Gwyneth Paltrow, but I remember it being very ponderous. Why Kloves never tried to direct again, or tried and maybe couldn't, is something I'd like to know more about. I agree about WONDER BOYS, my favorite Curtis Hanson, my favorite Michael Douglas, my favorite Tobey Maguire, hell, even my favorite Katie Holmes film...

Michael, my two favorite Miles records are probably Kind Of Blue and Someday My Prince in terms of how many times I've played them. But the mid-60s albums with Herbie and Shorter are wonderful too. My Miles appreciation is also heavily colored by the pianist(s) of the period. (Miles was so good at picking them too.) So, I especially like the records with the greats on them: Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland and Herbie Hancock. There's a hall of fame of jazz piano players right there.

I like all the things they do with Jeff Bridges' hands in the screenplay. Speaking of, yes, there are a lot of good lines of dialogue. e.g. Michelle to Beau: "I think your little brother prefers to dance alone."Michelle to Jeff the morning after: "You'd make a hell of a fireman, you know that?"Michelle to Jeff at his apartments: "So, where'd you keep all your blue ribbons, Baker?" "Frank keeps 'em."

The lines really get at something essential about the characters rather than just being witty...

Sit him down with an acoustic piano, stand-up/acoustic bass and jazz trap set, and he is a terrific jazz pianist.Unfortunately, you almost never hear him in that format. Instead, he whores out his piano playing/arranging skills to sickeningly commercial projects, including his own and others' smooth jazz crap.

But there are some tracks, e.g. a few on his Mancini or Gershwin tribute records where, using the musical format above, his playing shines. And it's this rare side of him that you occasionally hear just in snatches during the film. Like his (Jeff Bridges') trio playing "Jack's Theme" at Henry's.

TLRHB--Yes, you're right, it isn't.And I wish they had also included more of Michelle's performances like "Can't take my eyes of you", "The look of love", and "Ten cents a dance", not to mention "More than you know".

For the interested/curious:Here are a couple of nice Dave Grusin trio recordings of him doing Mancini: "Mr. Lucky" [mp3] and "Days Of Wine and Roses" [mp3].It's not Bill Evans, but it's respectable piano playing...

It's so funny you raise this question now, girish, because it's been on my mind. I'm an amateur jazz fan. I depend on friends who know a lot more than me. I love Miles, but I feel a little un-equipped to judge him. So, I love Kind of Blue and "It Never Entered My Mind" (off of Workin') is a gorgeous song. But I recently got a copy of Filles de Kilimanjaro, and I was thinking that is the Miles I really love (In a Silent Way is also fantastic). Miles had something like five or six periods in his career. This is the point when jazz fans I know lose their connection to Miles and it's when I really get interested. I can't really defend it; perhaps it just suits my sensibilities and connects easily to some pop music that I love.

Pop View, I heard Filles De Kilimanjaro years ago, as a teen, and found it utterly avant-garde. Couldn't get into it; I had very little music listening under my belt at the time. I've heard In A Silent Way just in passing. So, I don't know that Miles period at all.

Ironically, I've been a lover of pop and rock since way before I got into jazz, so I suspect I might be predisposed to appreciating that Miles period if I were to give it a try. Which I fully intend to do, and soon. Thanks for the nudge.

Talking about drummers, I couldn't but recommend you a Bulgarian artist - Stoyan Yankulov (official website - http://www.stoyankoulov.com/). He's quite famous outside Bulgaria too, together with Teodosii Spasov and Ivo Papazov, but I'm not sure whether his albums are available. His most recent project with Elitsa Todorova (official website - http://www.elitsatodorova.com) called 'Drumboy' is a wonderful mixture of percussion and drum performances in the mood of traditional "national music". This is how Yankulov defines real artists-musicians - as ones who obtain inspiration from their genuine love, interest, obsession with music - 'national'. Ironically, although he doesn't use this word with its relation to folklore, a lot of it can be sensed in his music.

Some excerpts can be found on his website, but the one I strongly recommend to you - 'Dum-Taka' - is, unfortunately, not available.

He has also worked on a project together with a famous Bulgarian theatrical artist Stefan Vuldobrev. The project is called 'Opus Theatrale' and can be found here - http://www.stefanvaldobrev.com/opustheatrale/index_eng.html. Anyway, here - http://www.stefanvaldobrev.com/opustheatrale/index2_eng.html- you can check out some excerpts as well. It's a compilation highly enjoyable, I guarantee.It might be interesting to you that it was Stefan Vuldobrev (http://www.stefanvaldobrev.com) who composed and produced the first official Bulgarian soundtrack from the film "Dogs' home" (2003). Of course, there were other film songs before, which even are one of the most popular songs in Bulgaria, but 'Dog's home' was the first OST - combined, produced and sold as a soundtrack album.

I'm sorry for the digression, it turned out to be quite long. Just thought you might find it interesting.

Tuwa ~ I mentioned shame because those 2 films are so iconic, so American, and so widely seen.

Noel ~ I won't be seeing Pink Flamingos again. The chicken scene, for one, is impossible to shake.

David ~ You're a lucky man: the Hawks oeuvre is virgin territory, lying in wait for you.I think that after Hitchcock, Hawks is my all-time favorite Hollywood director. And the filmmaker whose films I've repeat-watched most. The Thing is quintessential Hawks, though exactly all the reasons why it is so is something you will discover (pleasurably) only with time as you see more of his films. (His Girl Friday is a solid place to begin, or I should say, continue.)

A MySpace page called "Monk for the masses":"On the one hand, Mr. Monk had obvious talents, but on the other hand, his piano playing was very messy, and his songs had many funny notes and rhythms. Over the many years that I have been studying his music, I have grown to the conclusion that his songs would be much better, and much more popular, if many of the dissonances, or "wrong notes," were removed. With my new CD, "Hans Groiner Plays Monk," I have done just that. I think music fans from all over will agree that this new interpretation brings Monk's music to a much prettier, much more relaxing place."

Girish: leave it to me to misunderstand. (and here the Monty Python lover speaks up: "what, you mean like a business? When someone has something that must be misunderstood they call you up? Five quid for traffic signals and how to open common containers, six pence for driving directions received over the phone?")

Just found a site with a lot of interviews, directors mostly - http://zakka.dk/euroscreenwriters.htmPasolini's own notes on Salo was the piece that linked me there (http://zakka.dk/euroscreenwriters/interviews/pier_paolo_pasolini.htm)There're a few articles as well. If you haven't checked it out, it's worth it.

Wow, didn't know Mamet had written a new film starring William Macy and Joe Mantegna. Can't wait to see this. Here's David.

I'm a fan esp. of the early Mantegna/Mamet stuff (House of Games, Things Change etc) and even some of the later stuff (Spanish Prisoner and State & Main are great fun) and I wonder how Stuart Gordon's direction is different from what Mamet's might've been. For a guy who's a playwright and writer (sorry if this sounds like a back-handed compliment), Mamet has a very interesting mise-en-scene.

I don't believe I've seen anything by Gordon except Re-Animator, which I liked a lot.And Noel, I forgot to mention how much I liked your Catwoman Michelle Pfeiffer post. I haven't seen the film since it came out, but it brought it all right back to me.

Aw thanks, Girish, other than for the transcription, the interviews are effortless and fun for me. I've always liked to talk about movies, but, I love ratcheting it up one bit and talking about a movie with the person who made it. Please let me know what you think about "Play" when you finally get to see it!

As for Stuart Gordon, try From Beyond, Dagon, King of the Ants, and his episode of Masters of Horror. He has a new film out too, and I plan to catch it.

He's had a harder time than Mamet in getting funding for his projects. Which is hard to understand, since horror is considered a commercial genre, and Gordon like Mamet came out of Chicago theater. Hard to understand, that is, until you actually see the films. He's kind of out there.

Maya--I hope PLAY has distribution, otherwise I'd never get to see it...

Joy Division--Your mom (if she's like every other mom in the world) might also say: "It's never too late!"(Actually, my first piano lesson was in my 20's.)

Noel, Thanks for the Gordon recommendations.And about your trove of Yahoogroup posts, I had an idea: sometime you might think of doing a "Favorite Posts" post, with links to them (including the 10 Bollywood musicals post, which is a fave of mine). To get more people acquainted with your "back catalog". Just an idea...

I'm thinking of setting up a new blog, one that people might actually want to visit (unlike AOL), and just do that list you suggested...maybe a revolving list, if it's at all possible. Someone recommended a pay website service...but is it worth it? Especially when money's not exactly rolling in? I imagine Blogger's good enough...

i have always just loved the fabulous baker boys, definitely one of the best movies of all time. i love the songs too, it's classical, it has a 1940's nostalgia, i just could watch it over and over again. but i must say that my favorite part is when jack gives suzie a back rub on new years and the piano starts playing.